Disqus - Latest Comments for farra

Re: SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #10 to #1

farra — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 13:15:12 -0000

Some games have ascended and are beyond the reach of mortal lists.

(Now I need to schedule a game of Mage Knight for the holidays)

Re: Comic-Con Harassment complaints and Toronto Film Festival lineup

farra — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:59:19 -0000

Blaming costumes is a poor excuse. We've struggled with harassment at many professional industry conferences, let alone fan conferences like ComicCon. Women should be free of harassment regardless of the environment.

Re: TraceGL: A JavaScript Codeflow Visualization and Debugging Tool using WebGL - Badass JavaScript

farra — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 22:42:36 -0000

For those wondering, the code was moved to github by the author:

https://github.com/traceglM...

Re: GDC 2013 is Officially Underway and TouchArcade is On the Scene

farra — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:17:21 -0000

Well, if you do make it over to Moscone, I'll be hanging at the Riot Games booth most of the event. Hopefully we'll cross paths as I'd love to say hello!

Re: HBO No Go

farra — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:50:34 -0000

There's no use taking that line of argument to the studios. They have the content, they decide what technologies they're comfortable with. You can make them more comfortable by throwing large piles of cash at them or by undergoing lengthy technical reviews. Ultimately, it's their call.

Re: HBO No Go

farra — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:49:05 -0000

It's been a while since I had this conversation, so some bits are fuzzy. I believe the exact issue wasn't listening in on the wire, but rooting the Phone or the AppleTV or replacing the AppleTV at the other end and getting access to unprotected memory (arguably there are attacks against encrypted HLS that work this way).

Regardless, I've found that the cryptographic particularities don't always matter when you're in discussions with the studios. They have a list of approved DRMs and technologies and you're either on the list or you're not. Otherwise, you face at least a 6+ month in depth technical review of the stack.

TL;DR: The studios can be somewhat arbitrary in approving or disproving technologies. Last I heard, AirPlay was not approved.

Re: HBO No Go

farra — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:22:22 -0000

Having developed these sort of systems before, I can tell you it's because AirPlay is considered an insecure protocol. It's too easy to capture the AirPlay stream and thus, in theory, create HD copies of the video. That's why they don't do it.

Re: TouchArcade at E3 Next Week; WWDC the Week After

farra — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:33:23 -0000

Details here:

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/...

Re: TouchArcade at E3 Next Week; WWDC the Week After

farra — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:17:25 -0000

Will TouchArcade be at any of the parties or other events in LA next week? I'm not going to E3 but would love to meet up. I know there's a Pocket Gamer event.

Re: Cubicle Muses - What's Next

farra — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:04:56 -0000

I contractually cannot say much, but what I can say is that VDIO is still alive and I hope to see a product released at some point.

Re: Gweek podcast episode 026: A heavily medicated ren faire

farra — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:50:31 -0000

Dungeon Raid rocks. I listened to the podcast purely for this discussion. Okay, Skyrim is cutting into my Dungeon Raid time.

Re: Atari Appears to Have a Joystick in the Works for the iPad and It Looks Kind of Sweet

farra — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:54:39 -0000

The website says:

"The first Atari controller connected to the iPad using the 30 pin connector, as it was meant to be."

That suggests it is *not* compatible with the iCade bluetooth controls and that it will only work in portrait mode. :-(

Re: Hey, New iCade Owners, Here's A List Of iCade Supported / Compatible Games

farra — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:41:17 -0000

I was just wishing for The Blocks Cometh iCade support yesterday. Even better would be getting Namco and Taito on board.

Re: 'Realm Of The Mad God' On Mobile? It Could Happen

farra — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:35:30 -0000

Why stick with typical virtual sticks? Why not use something like Battleheart's controls? Or maybe a touch-anywhere single virtual stick for movement and some gesture (two finger touch?) for directional fire?

Devs need to think out of the box more on touch control schemes rather than just slapping virtual sticks and virtual buttons onto everything.

Re: Cubicle Muses - iPad (and iPhone) Apps for Kids

farra — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:25:53 -0000

I've been looking for a dollhouse app for my daughter. I've installed it and I'll let her take a look tonight. Looks like a great app and I'm curious to see what future updates will bring. Good job!

Re: Cubicle Muses - The iPad Life

farra — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:18:38 -0000

Morten, I find there are a number of reasonable positions for writing on the iPad. When sitting on a couch, you'll likely want it at an incline, which requires resting the iPad on something. The SmartCover can work well in this case. I also find it rather comfortable to write on a couch while sitting cross-legged.

The very best experience is with a Bluetooth Keyboard and the IA Writer application. In this case, I prefer portrait mode to landscape, though either works. This setup replicates a focused "typewriter" experience.

For reference, my article was written in IA Writer without use of a keyboard.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:21:27 -0000

Record labels and Hollywood Studios typically take at least a 50% cut for any catalog content. For new release VOD rental, that's as much as 70% to the studio. 70% to content owner + 30% to Apple = 0% for the content provide (someone like Amazon, Vudu, etc.) It doesn't add up and that's why you either won't see those services on iOS or see them pulled.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:41:09 -0000

When you're profit margin is small, which is true for content providers like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Rdio and others, then 30% makes iOS unprofitable. They provided iOS clients to add value to their existing services, not to create a new service. If iOS proves unprofitable now, they'll leave.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:38:32 -0000

This isn't app sales, this is in-app content or subscriptions, very different.

Moreover, you think that 50% carrier control had anything to do with lack of innovation and apps on the phones? Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Rdio and others weren't there because it wasn't profitable. They'll leave iOS for the same reasons.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:31:15 -0000

The 30% rate for app purchases is one thing. In that case, Apple is creating an actual market place, they are hosting the actual app and delivering it to the customer.

The 30% for in-app subscriptions and content purchases is completely another matter. That's Apple acting only as a payment processor and it makes serving those customers unprofitable. I don't mind Apple taking a reasonable cut for handling the processing, but 30% is unreasonable. If you've actually worked in the content space, maybe you'd appreciate the numbers better.

Re: Subscriptions Come to Apple's App Store: Good News or Bad News for Movies, Magazines?

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:22:20 -0000

A 30% cut simply makes it not worth providing the app to iOS customers in many cases. If you're Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Rdio or others, you already pay content owners a sizable portion of subscription or content purchase fees. Putting Apple in the mix simply makes a number of business unprofitable. Let me repeat: unprofitable. Why would I put out an app that makes me lose money?

In this case, Apple is merely acting as a payment processor. The content provider still has to host the backend services and serve up the actual content. Apple doesn't help at all there. No, this is like Visa trying to take a 30% cut. It doesn't work.

Further, imagine if Apple or Microsoft did the same on the desktop and browser: the argument for usability still exists. In fact, it's even more powerful. Consider a common, trusted API built into the OS and/or the browser for securely handling all payments. Makes it simple for the users. But we wouldn't have the ecosystem we have today if there was a 30% tax on all purchases. That's where this road leads and the content providers must understand that or hand their future over to Apple.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:52:59 -0000

Gareth, the new rules disallow custom in-app payment systems. So, if your customer upgrades their service via the in-app button, you just lost 30%. Remember, Apple only hosts the app code, they don't host all your backend services, or pay the bandwidth for the delivery of in-app media. This is a 30% payment processing fee, which is hugely out of line in the larger market.

Re: Why you should fight Apple’s Subscription Extortion

farra — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:49:31 -0000

Andrew, unfortunately, you are missing something. The updates rules state you cannot do what you just suggested. You must offer a way for new subscribers to subscribe via the app and hand over 30% to Apple in the process. The same is true of in-app content purchases such as purchasing music, ebooks and movies. If you offer these items for sale on your site, you must also offer them for sale in the app.

Re: SafetyWeb Acquires iHound And myID, Pushes People-Centric Security Solution

farra — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:28:27 -0000

Techcrunch can't seriously think these full page ads will fly with their audience. The fall out will be fun to watch. /me goes make popcorn.

Re: 'Neuroshima Hex' Updated with Universal iPad Support, Retina Display Graphics, and Game Center

farra — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:24:42 -0000

I played a fair bit of Neuroshima Hex for the first time this weekend. Fantastic game. It actually helped me break my recent Dungeon Raid addiction. Can't wait for multiplayer and expansion cards.